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Online mikeselectricstuff

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Re: Keysight Scope Month feedback
« Reply #25 on: April 16, 2016, 09:12:45 am »
Lower priced scopes are more a favour to citizens of countries with ridiculous tax systems, where even "free" gets taxed. I doubt it's much of a difference to Keysight to give away for example a MSOX3014T (100MHz) or a MSOX3104T (1GHz), the hardware is basically the same. Yes, high bandwidth analog frontends are expensive, but not $10K more expensive (in BOM to the manufacturer). The list price is more of a tax problem to the winner, once this is properly handled by Keysight, there is no need for the low bandwidth "Hobbyists" scopes to be included in the contest. The cheating and the tax problem are the two main problems Keysight may want to work on for next year, imho.

Oh, and please, more mugs and baseball caps and ballpoint pens  :-+
And t-shirts
For any contest that needs some effort,all entries should get something,even if only a T-shirt etc.
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Offline stmdude

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Re: Keysight Scope Month feedback
« Reply #26 on: April 16, 2016, 09:31:35 am »
The solution next time is simple. Like other engineering contests, you have specialist judges. I've been a judge in many contests, and whilst not perfect, it really the best way to weed out the unworthy entries.

This.  This is the only way to make sure that the recipient is "worthy".
Also, it would have disqualified me, as (unless I would have lied in the video) I have an okay scope (Agilent MSO-X 2004A) at home, and I have access to much higher bandwidth stuff at work if I need it. And, I should be disqualified. I don't need a new/free scope from Keysight. I have a job, and a scope.

Also, maybe a tiered approach?  One nice scope, a few mid-range ones, and a bunch of low-end scopes.

And, why only scopes?   The one thing I see people need the most (without realizing) is a good, trustworthy power-supply. Even the most basic Keysight PSU would be a massive upgrade for most people.
 
As for what I would have wanted to get for free from Keysight?   One of their DC Power Analyzers would be the cats pajamas..  But, that's probably just me. :)
 

Offline SeanB

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Re: Keysight Scope Month feedback
« Reply #27 on: April 16, 2016, 09:32:31 am »
T shirt is a plus, just remember than in many countries ( including where I live) any clothing attracts a high duty rate. 

Best is to send the mug or pen to all entries, as this is both simple and low cost, and then only with the semi finalists and perhaps the judges send them a T shirt ( remember Dave is a small, a shirt that fits me will fit him, Sagan and Huxley all at the same time with room left over) so you get the judging videos to better represent the brand as well.

A thought for next year is to make up a print run of Keysight branded note pads ( like the DaveCad pages Dave uses on his videos for stuff not on a whiteboard) and send them with the pens. With a small A5 pad of around 30 pages and a pen, possibly a keyring as well, will fit in a small padded bag and can go regular post as well. Basically Trade show swag, so should be easy to get internally on the marketing budget.
 

Offline Kjelt

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Re: Keysight Scope Month feedback
« Reply #28 on: April 16, 2016, 09:46:02 am »
I wanted to create a new thread to talk about Scope Month.  What you liked or didn't like, what we should or shouldn't do again, what you want next year, etc.
This is a chance for you all to give me & the team direct feedback as we plan for 2017!  Thanks for a great ride! 
Hi Daniel,
personally I would first like to know what the intention of Keysight is, what was the strategy?
If the strategy was to get more publicity of your new brandname in an open untargeted audience , ok this works, I am sure a lot of 14 year girls now have heard of your new brandname.

If the strategy was to sell more scopes to a target audience, this fails.
Why? Because you are selling Ferrari's and there are not many people/hobbieists that can afford a ferrari.

Now if there would be some sort of new generation marketing scheme that would allow enthousiasts like us to buy such beautifull pieces of equipment for the price of (you know who) a china competitor scope and ofcouse not to cannabilize your marketing group the buyer would have to sign a non-commercial license agreement and not to sell the scope in the first four years or so (serial number locked or whatever) to get this really really good deal, than you have a lot of advantages:

1) you will reach your target audience: a lot of hobbieists like on this forum do this also for their work for companies that will buy your products for 100% listprice if the products are as good.
    They use them at home so they also want to use them at work.

2) your products will get even better:  have hobbieists actually using and experiencing your scopes and openly talking about it on a forum like this. This will provide very valuable feedback in GUI, scope practice etc, to improve next gen products. Dave is only one guy, think about 100's-1000's testers sharing their findings, you will end up with the best products on this planet  ;)

This would be so much more valuable to your company and to the target audience compared to giving away these beautifull devices to a random bunch of people, ending them up on ebay or catching dust in some highschool closet. Then I rather had you gave them away to some universities in 3rd world countries that have totally no funding at all and are crying to have some sort of decent equipment, would make it a good tax write off also. Think about it, let your marketing department get in the next century and start thinking out of the box.

 

Offline Towger

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Re: Keysight Scope Month feedback
« Reply #29 on: April 16, 2016, 10:53:13 am »


They should have called it scopeadaymadness.com

It is all about marketing and there is no harm in a bit of controversy to help get your name out.

 

Offline stmdude

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Re: Keysight Scope Month feedback
« Reply #30 on: April 16, 2016, 11:52:10 am »
How about only people who have entered the draw for the giveaways being allowed to vote on the presentations?  They have presumably already been screened to be real people who want an oscilloscope.  And if any of them are just opportunists looking for any old prize they probably won't bother to vote.

Wont work, as the entrants are biased towards themselves. The tactical voting for a biased person would be to vote on the persons with the least to gain (i.e, the ones that already at the bottom), thereby making sure they wont be hurting their own chances in the process.
 
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Online nctnico

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Re: Keysight Scope Month feedback
« Reply #31 on: April 16, 2016, 12:07:23 pm »
b) A set of hobby level test gear, scope, bench PSU, function generator etc.
I like this idea: not just concentrate on scopes but provide a complete beginners kit of equipment (MSO scope, PSU, multimeter, function generator).
There are small lies, big lies and then there is what is on the screen of your oscilloscope.
 

Online mikeselectricstuff

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Re: Keysight Scope Month feedback
« Reply #32 on: April 16, 2016, 05:25:29 pm »
The solution next time is simple. Like other engineering contests, you have specialist judges. I've been a judge in many contests, and whilst not perfect, it really the best way to weed out the unworthy entries.

This.  This is the only way to make sure that the recipient is "worthy".

But probably not disclose who the judges are until afterwards  to avoid them getting hassled.
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Offline ez24

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Re: Keysight Scope Month feedback
« Reply #33 on: April 16, 2016, 05:37:30 pm »
Isn't it possible the Keysight will get name recognition among high school students because of this?  And some may carry this in their memories into their jobs. 

Maybe this is a way for KS to brain wash our youth ?  ha ha ha

If this is a social experiment, I would say it worked.  I bet this will be in the school newspaper.  And possible in their local newspaper.

I think it will make big news that a 16 yo girl wins a $75,000 prize.

When I was 15 (in the 60's) I won an encyclopedia (World Book) and I was on the front page in the San Diego paper.  All I remember they scared the shit out of me when they came to take my picture.

If anyone cares it is on page B1, Jan. 1 1963.  San Diego Union



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Online rsjsouza

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Re: Keysight Scope Month feedback
« Reply #34 on: April 16, 2016, 08:31:52 pm »
Daniel, you guys put together a great promotion that really had a great impact on the Keysight brand recognition. Congratulations! You can tell by the number of forum threads in the Contests and Events section of this website that have "Keysight" on its subject - including a joke on another brand.

As feedback, in the future the entry form could potentially have some sort of multiple email entry avoidance system - yes, even Facebook-tied entries (they are  not as impopular as Dave believes - any engineer living abroad I know uses it in one way or another to be in touch with relatives)

All th  best and looking forward for 2017!
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Offline DimitriP

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Re: Keysight Scope Month feedback
« Reply #35 on: April 16, 2016, 09:11:55 pm »
Quote
Isn't it possible the Keysight will get name recognition among high school students because of this?  And some may carry this in their memories into their jobs. 

High Schools get more satisfaction providing food and spectacle along with good test scores and college entrance statistics rather than building knowledge into the students.

   If three 100  Ohm resistors are connected in parallel, and in series with a 200 Ohm resistor, how many resistors do you have? 
 

Offline Macbeth

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Re: Keysight Scope Month feedback
« Reply #36 on: April 17, 2016, 08:46:44 am »
Quote
Isn't it possible the Keysight will get name recognition among high school students because of this?  And some may carry this in their memories into their jobs. 

High Schools get more satisfaction providing food and spectacle along with good test scores and college entrance statistics rather than building knowledge into the students.

I don't know where this Nilu is a 16 year old schoolgirl thing is coming from? If so, nature has been cruel on the one hand, but maybe gave her savant abilities letting her complete a 5 year degree at, what, 14 years old?  :-DD
 

Offline BobbyK

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Re: Keysight Scope Month feedback
« Reply #37 on: April 17, 2016, 11:46:45 am »
Lets see how Dave's work

The main thing is he made a set of contestants before it started (min 10 posts).  In other words they were qualified before entering.

I would like to see non-profits be the only ones qualified to enter.  Like schools.  My idea is for a trade school like ITT enter because they may be able to use a high cost scope and in turn they would put something together (like electronic labs) for poor schools.  They could use students to assemble kits and write materials.

Seems there would be a lot of good will to encourage a lot of publicity for KS and the trade school.

In other words it would be nice if a high value item could benefit more people.  I also would like to see the benefit go to school labs in third world countries.   

The trade school that could put the best third world lab together would be the winner.  Blog members could help.  I guess it does not have to be a school.  A person (unlikely) or a company could do this.

I do not like FB contests.  This one turned out to be kinda sad  :(

I hope this topic will encourage some good ideas.


Even though I am a big fan of Dave and what he is doing on EEVBlog, I don't thing he ran the contest perfectly. For one, even though I added my name on the forum, and qualified, my name was NOT on the excel list as he scrolled through the (presumably sorted by name) list. So I think there were a few who fell through the cracks somehow (bad SQL Query?). Also, I did not agree with the hasty way it was done - e.g. none of the two winners were online. I would have loved to see their reactions when they win the prize :)


@Daniel:
1. There was a bit of confusion about the smallprint in the beginning (aka. All your life belong to us!!! :P Many engineers are very precise when it comes to lawyerspeak (it scares us!) That was bad.
2. The videos were fun, taught me something, and put a few faces to your company. That was great.
3. There was confusion in the beginning about entering every day, entering with multiple emails? etc. etc. A clearly written bullet list of what can and cannot be done (in engineer-speak, rather than lawyerspeak) would have been great.
4. I think the campaign worked on me - I was on the fence about buying a new scope, and now I think I will seriously consider Keysight scopes (though they always seem slightly above my budget).
5. Scope-month was great, but maybe having contests more often, even for much cheaper scopes, and on different occasions, is probably the way to go. there were plenty of my engineer friends who did not know about scope-month.
6. The scope barbecue was cringeworthy. You need to understand, for many people who have never owned an expensive scope, a Keysight scope is something to be enjoyed and worshipped (ok, maybe not "worshipped"). A lot of people saw that as sacrilege. There are ofcourse many here, and probably more at Keysight, who see and work with these scopes every day, and to them it was not a big issue. I think the lesson to learn is, to bring in a couple of people from your audience, from outside the company, and get their opinion if you ever want to do more "barbecuing" :)
« Last Edit: April 17, 2016, 11:51:16 am by BobbyK »
 

Offline BobbyK

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Re: Keysight Scope Month feedback
« Reply #38 on: April 17, 2016, 11:53:39 am »
As feedback, in the future the entry form could potentially have some sort of multiple email entry avoidance system - yes, even Facebook-tied entries (they are  not as impopular as Dave believes - any engineer living abroad I know uses it in one way or another to be in touch with relatives)

No...Just NO! You are assuming things here sir. Facebook is a big NO to me, and about 50% of the people I know who are about my age. We still value our privacy, and we do not have Facebook accounts. :palm:
 

Online rsjsouza

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Re: Keysight Scope Month feedback
« Reply #39 on: April 17, 2016, 12:28:44 pm »
As feedback, in the future the entry form could potentially have some sort of multiple email entry avoidance system - yes, even Facebook-tied entries (they are  not as impopular as Dave believes - any engineer living abroad I know uses it in one way or another to be in touch with relatives)

No...Just NO! You are assuming things here sir. Facebook is a big NO to me, and about 50% of the people I know who are about my age. We still value our privacy, and we do not have Facebook accounts. :palm:
Well, I am not "assuming" anything, it is my observation around my professional peers. Yours is different, which is fine.
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Offline Augustus

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Re: Keysight Scope Month feedback
« Reply #40 on: April 17, 2016, 12:34:07 pm »
The whole public voting idea is a fail right from the start. You could invent a perfectly working anti-gravity device and would still lose big time to a bunch of high school students with their army of teenage backers  :--
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Offline AndyC_772

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Re: Keysight Scope Month feedback
« Reply #41 on: April 17, 2016, 01:17:16 pm »
A few idle thoughts...

- voting several times a day seems really.... odd. I've never seen another competition work this way, and I'm not sure I see what it achieves besides placing a burden on those who vote, to keep coming back to make sure their support carries as much weight as other peoples'.

- for the big prize, I definitely agree that having a team of judges would work better than having a simple popularity contest. In this case, David and Nilu have, quite reasonably, worked out that their chances of winning a scope at all are greatly increased by submitting a video and going for the 'big one', rather than just putting their names into the hat for one of the lesser scopes that are also being given away. Sadly, though, this does mean that someone with a genuinely good use for the 'big one' is more likely to lose out, and an expensive multi-GHz unit is likely to find itself attached to some kind of 'duino. That's a travesty, IMHO.

- please, no Facebook. I have an account on the Keysight web site; why shouldn't I be able to use this to identify myself?

Offline janoc

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Re: Keysight Scope Month feedback
« Reply #42 on: April 17, 2016, 01:17:31 pm »
Well, I am not "assuming" anything, it is my observation around my professional peers. Yours is different, which is fine.

Check the Facebook poll in another thread? Less than 50% here use it.
 

Offline Brumby

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Re: Keysight Scope Month feedback
« Reply #43 on: April 17, 2016, 02:05:21 pm »
Well, I am not "assuming" anything, it is my observation around my professional peers. Yours is different, which is fine.

Check the Facebook poll in another thread? Less than 50% here use it.

The expression YMMV was created for a reason.   This is one of them.

We have one opinion by a member from their observations and we have a poll that shows 49% DO have a FB account with three quarters of those using it on some sort of regular basis.

Let's not get too embroiled in the argument.
 

Offline XynxNet

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Re: Keysight Scope Month feedback
« Reply #44 on: April 17, 2016, 08:10:51 pm »
I would have preferred to enter once for the whole month. Entering once a day was a bit annoying.

I prefer websites free of scripts because I use NoScript for security reasons.

I know, every code has bugs, but a website designed to advertise a hightech company conveys a better professional image if it is bug free. Especially the link to the winner list comes to mind. You fixed it moderately fast though. :).
 

Offline bitseeker

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Re: Keysight Scope Month feedback
« Reply #45 on: April 17, 2016, 11:47:29 pm »
I'll second (third, fourth?) the notion of having more variety for the next promotion. Keysight makes a variety of equipment at different price points to fit different needs. So, for a giveaway with the most mindshare, entries, watchers, buzz, etc., do more than just one type of instrument (e.g., single units of high-end items, various bundles of other equipment).
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Offline MarvinTheMartian

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Re: Keysight Scope Month feedback
« Reply #46 on: April 18, 2016, 12:52:03 am »
- voting several times a day seems really.... odd. I've never seen another competition work this way, and I'm not sure I see what it achieves besides placing a burden on those who vote, to keep coming back to make sure their support carries as much weight as other peoples'.
I find this quite odd also. I can't see the logic in having to vote three times instead of just once unless KS envisages that a voter may want to split their vote between two or three entrants and not just one.

I don't know that this would happen often, but it makes it a burden for everyone who is just voting for one entrant.

Quote
- please, no Facebook. I have an account on the Keysight web site; why shouldn't I be able to use this to identify myself?
Yes, no FB please.
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Offline rch

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Re: Keysight Scope Month feedback
« Reply #47 on: April 18, 2016, 01:40:44 pm »
How about only people who have entered the draw for the giveaways being allowed to vote on the presentations?  They have presumably already been screened to be real people who want an oscilloscope.  And if any of them are just opportunists looking for any old prize they probably won't bother to vote.

Wont work, as the entrants are biased towards themselves. The tactical voting for a biased person would be to vote on the persons with the least to gain (i.e, the ones that already at the bottom), thereby making sure they wont be hurting their own chances in the process.

I'm talking about the thousands of people who entered the main daily drawing voting for the dozen or so video presenters.  Not just the video presenters voting!
 

Offline kaz911

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Re: Keysight Scope Month feedback
« Reply #48 on: April 20, 2016, 04:58:45 pm »

For the video competition:
I agree - NO facebook ....
Then - issue 3 votes for the videos- but only allow 1 vote for 1 contestant per day - so you are forced to put votes on 3 different people. And if you don't vote for 3 different people - remove ALL votes from the count. That kind of make the price for buying votes 3 times as high as most place charge per vote...

anyway - rest of scopemonth - I would suggest a "pick as you want" - so a contest where you win V$xxxx in virtual vouchers - which you can then spend on what you need vs what you have too much in stock off. >:D   And better with more and smaller prices than each one getting $10.000+ worth. Maybe a daily $5000, $3000, 2 x $1000 price or something like that.

Another more permanent suggestion: When you "discontinue" products could you "donate" the soft license keys (or license key generator)  for options for those products - to a place like EEVBlog? So struggling artists :) and hobbyist would be able to "spec up" old / used 2nd/3rd/4th hand gear without resorting to "hacking" - but bid/buy/beg/request licenses for good purpose. That would make the 2nd hand market more "valuable" for hobby users if they could buy for example Memory Option or Protocol Decoder for "out of date" products. That would at least make them consider older HaPikeylent products vs newer hack-able Chinese brands :) No point in buying an old high end HP/Agilent scope if serial decoder costs 10 times more than the scope does 2nd hand - if you can even FIND/buy a bloody license code for it.... I do know it might have some business implications - but if it is for "hobby/limited small business" use only - it would be good PR and might even be tax deductible... - So a bit like Microsoft run's their "SMB" Developer programs where you get access to all MS software for reduced pricing.


 
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Offline Brumby

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Re: Keysight Scope Month feedback
« Reply #49 on: April 21, 2016, 12:48:27 am »
Another more permanent suggestion: When you "discontinue" products could you "donate" the soft license keys (or license key generator)  for options for those products - to a place like EEVBlog? So struggling artists :) and hobbyist would be able to "spec up" old / used 2nd/3rd/4th hand gear without resorting to "hacking" - but bid/buy/beg/request licenses for good purpose. That would make the 2nd hand market more "valuable" for hobby users if they could buy for example Memory Option or Protocol Decoder for "out of date" products. That would at least make them consider older HaPikeylent products vs newer hack-able Chinese brands :) No point in buying an old high end HP/Agilent scope if serial decoder costs 10 times more than the scope does 2nd hand - if you can even FIND/buy a bloody license code for it.... I do know it might have some business implications - but if it is for "hobby/limited small business" use only - it would be good PR and might even be tax deductible... - So a bit like Microsoft run's their "SMB" Developer programs where you get access to all MS software for reduced pricing.

Not exactly a competition topic - but an interesting idea.  It could give the 'taste' for Keysight products and features to those who may not be able to justify such an expense at that point in time as well as starting them on a path where they will need more current tech further down the road.

However, I can see business issues and priorities being a major factor in whether such a move would be implemented.
 


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